BANGOR, Maine (GreenBayPhoenix.com) – A commanding first half performance helped propel the Green Bay women’s basketball team not only to a 90-44 win over William and Mary, but also to head coach Kevin Borseth’s 250th win in his tenure at Green Bay.

Borseth earned his 250th win in his 316th game with the Phoenix, spanning 11 seasons and two different stints, to become the quickest Phoenix head coach to the milestone.

“Every win is a good win,” Borseth said. “We want to continue to keep the program where it is at and continue to climb, so we will just keep taking everything one game at a time.”

It was also a great team effort for the Phoenix, scoring 90 points in a game for the first time since February 2 of last season against UIC. The 46-point difference was the largest margin of victory for Green Bay this season, while its 44 opponent points tied a season low allowed. Ellen Edison (Maple Grove, Minn.) led the Phoenix with a career-high 23 points, fueled by 6-for-7 shooting from three. Lexi Weitzer (Waukesha, Wis.) also had a career day with 10 points and six rebounds.

It was all Green Bay in the first half as it went into intermission with a 45-13 lead. The 45 points were the highest halftime total for the Phoenix this season, while they were also able to hold the Tribe to an opponent low 13 points for a half.

Tesha Buck (Red Wing, Minn.) started the scoring for Green Bay with a three and the advantage eventually ballooned to 9-0 before William and Mary called its first timeout of the game with 17:22 remaining. The Phoenix forced the Tribe into turnovers on three of its first four possessions during the run, and also held them to just a single shot. Coming out of the timeout, Kaitlyn Mathieu gave the green and gold its first points of the game (9-2) but another Phoenix run, this time 8-0, gave the Phoenix a commanding 17-2 advantage.

A staunch Green Bay defense held the Tribe at bay the rest of the way, forcing 18 turnovers and turning them into 18 points. The squad also recorded nine steals and two blocks in the effort while limiting W&M to 26.3 percent (5-19) from the field and bucketless from behind the arc (0-7). The Phoenix also controlled the boards, outrebounding the Tribe by a margin of 26-13.

On the offensive end, 10 of the 11 Phoenix that took to the court scored as the bench provided almost half (24-45) of Green Bay’s points over the first 20 minutes.

Green Bay continued to control the game in the second half, with the team’s reserves seeing key playing time and pitching in 30 of the 45 points in the second stanza as it cruised to the final 90-44 margin.

“Anytime you score 90 points you’re going to have great success,” Borseth said. “We distributed the ball well, everyone got an opportunity to score. It was great for our reserves to get game experience, something they can’t get just in practice. That will really help us down the line.”

For the game, Green Bay was 47.8 percent (32-67) from the field and 50.0 percent (15-30) from three, while missing just one free throw opportunity (11-12) in the contest. In addition to Edison and Weitzer, Kaili Lukan (Barrie, Ontario) finished with double-digit scoring (10) while Breannah Ranger (Skokie, Ill.) had a game-high 10 rebounds. The strong defensive performance by the Phoenix finished the game forcing 27 Tribe turnovers (30 pts. off turnovers) in addition to recording 15 steals and three blocks.

W&M shot 34.8 percent (16-46) from the field and was just 26.3 percent (5-19) from three, making all five of their three’s in the second half. Marlena Tremba was the lone Tribe player in double digits with 11 points.

Green Bay will now play host Maine in the championship game tomorrow at 1 p.m. CST. Live audio, video and stats will be available for the game.

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